A series of investigations into some of President Donald Trump’s political adversaries run by “Stop the Steal” organizer turned Justice Department “special attorney” Edward Martin is being conducted outside the normal DOJ chain of command with regular input from the president himself, The Independent has learned.
The GOP activist attorney, who simultaneously serves as the U.S. Pardon Attorney, head of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s “Weaponization Working Group,” and as a “Special Attorney for Mortgage Fraud,” has become the tip of the spear in the president’s campaign of retribution with the aid of fellow administration official Bill Pulte.
Pulte, the 37-year-old ex-private equity executive and Trump campaign donor turned federal mortgage regulator, has been lobbing attacks against prominent Democrats, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, California senator Adam Schiff and Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook. Pulte has referred all three to the department for investigation and prosecution, and Martin has picked up the baton with gusto while remaining in constant contact with Trump, speaking with him by phone multiple times a week.
Each of the accused has strenuously denied any wrongdoing, and none of the officials targeted by Pulte and the Trump administration have been charged with any crime.
But Trump, who has taken a more active interest in the inner workings of the Justice Department than any president since Richard Nixon, is hoping Martin will change that by finally putting his adversaries in handcuffs.
Despite a marked lack of experience in the nuts and bolts of prosecuting criminals in the federal court system, Martin is actively preparing to ask for felony indictments against the Democratic officials — and is doing so without the normal support of the DOJ hierarchy.
His appointment as a “Special Attorney” by Bondi under a rarely-used portion of the U.S. Code gives him the authority “to conduct any kind of legal proceeding which United States Attorneys are authorized by law to conduct,” and, according to sources, Martin is taking advantage of that authority by operating outside the supervision of the department’s No. 2 official, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Martin, whose status permits him to prosecute criminal cases in any of the 94 judicial districts that make up the federal court system, is leading investigations and presenting evidence to grand jurors with an eye towards bringing a case — any case — against his targets.
Administration officials told The Independent that Blanche, a former top prosecutor in the Southern District of New York who represented President Trump in multiple criminal cases during his time out of office, has complained to top administration figures about Martin taking point in these matters, and bypassing the department’s existing infrastructure, while going beyond simply looking at whether his targets committed mortgage fraud by probing possible criminal tax violations.
Blanche is understood to have offered Martin access to staff and resources to aid him, because the failure to obtain indictments against James, Schiff or Cook would be a significant embarrassment for the department. At the same time, he has expressed fears that Martin, whose experience as a prosecutor is limited to a four-month stint as an interim U.S. Attorney in Washington, is simply not up to the task.
Yet despite going so far as to make his case in person at the White House while meeting with top brass last Friday, Blanche’s concerns have largely fallen on deaf ears, the official said, because Trump sees Martin as a “fighter” who will do what so many “respectable” DOJ appointees failed to do during his first term — prosecute Democrats.
To that end, Trump has been bypassing Blanche — and occasionally reaching past Attorney General Pam Bondi — by regularly telephoning Martin for updates on his work, leaving Blanche “frustrated and annoyed,” according to one source familiar with the matter.
The Independent understands that these calls can come as often as three to four times per week, with Trump urging Martin to move forward.
Trump is also understood to have lines of communication with Pulte, who, in turn, is in frequent communication with Martin, leaving both men operating based on an understanding that allegations against Trump’s antagonists should be followed up to the fullest extent.
A senior White House official stressed that Bondi has never been cut out of the loop with respect to Martin’s work on the mortgage fraud portfolio — or any other matter — and stressed that Trump speaks with the Attorney General almost daily if not more.
That frequent contact is in and of itself a major departure from how the White House and DOJ have interacted since the Ford Administration, when in the wake of Watergate, strict guidelines were established for contact between the Executive Office of the President and the Justice Department.
In a statement, White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson told The Independent that Trump “interacts with many valued voices across his Administration” and “receives regular updates” from Bondi — and Blanche.
“He also relies on the many other strong relationships he has, like with Ed Martin, to get input and discuss ideas on a variety of issues,” Jackson added.
Trump’s maintenance of that “strong relationship” with Martin, as he leads efforts to indict and jail the president’s adversaries, tracks with the way the president has repeatedly claimed the right to direct the conduct of criminal investigations by claiming the mantle of the country’s “chief law enforcement officer.”
Since returning to office in January, Trump has on multiple occasions broken with decades of precedent by directly ordering the department to investigate multiple political adversaries, including former officials in his first administration who have criticized him or pushed back on his false claims that the 2020 election — which he lost to Joe Biden — stolen from him.
With Pulte at the helm of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the two government-sponsored mortgage backers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Trump has found a new weapon against his political enemies in the form of mortgage fraud allegations.
In short order, Pulte has made a habit of urging that Trump’s nemeses be prosecuted for alleged mortgage occupancy fraud, accusing each of having falsely claimed more than one property as their primary residence and obtained favorable mortgage rates they would not have otherwise been entitled to receive.
In the case of Cook, an appointee of former president Joe Biden who is the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board, Trump seized on the unproven allegations as sufficient cause to fire from her role on the central bank’s board and create a vacancy he can fill with a loyalist who will support the lower interest rates he has demanded from the bank for months.
Cook filed a lawsuit to block Trump’s effort to fire her. In response, Pulte issued yet another referral urging the DOJ to prosecute her for what he claimed was a third instance of fraud.
Some of the claims against James and Schiff have been floated in the past by conservative media figures, but Pulte’s ascent to the top of the housing finance agency — and Martin’s appointment to prosecute mortgage fraud at the DOJ —have made that weapon a potent one.
Asked if Pulte has been working from a list of people to target by examining their mortgage records, a source familiar with the matter would not say so outright but strongly implied that the federal housing boss is somehow attuned to the president’s desires.
“These names didn’t just fall out of a tree,” the source said.
